Katherine Glover, A New Panel Diptych

This most recently-completed work continues my exploration of negative space in the design.  Its design incorporates a further challenge, in that the gesture must sweep the intervening space between the two panels without stumbling. 

I wanted to create a background on which to float the design -- a surface that is both pristine and of the same texture as the the strips that form the wave.  I hoped to make it seem that the swirls are rising from the background, in the same way that a wave rises from the sea.  At its highest point, the wave crests about 3.5" higher than the surface, and at its lowest, it seemingly subsides into the surface.

click on  image to enlarge

Wave

First I adhered several full sheets of khadi paper flat to the panels, then built the wave on top of this, using graduated strips of torn khadi paper.  I hand-tinted gesso to match the natural color of the paper, then painted several layers of this over the entire piece.  This treatment gives the free-standing strips stability and additional body.  It also visually softens the paper edges so they seem more water-like.  I have gilded the edges of the paper strips that create the wave's visible surface with gold metal leaf.

click on  image to enlarge
 

Wave, detail

Bling-bling!

Materials: background is khadi sheets adhered to surface of birch panel; design is torn khadi paper strips adhered upright to this background.  Gesso.  Gold metal leaf embellishment.  

Dimensions:  Diptych -- overall piece measures 49"" wide x 48.5" high x about 4.5" deep

Katherine Glover, 1st in Spring work series

This piece began as an experiment with negative space.  During construction of several pieces in the past, spaces-as-yet-to-be-filled have intrigued me enough that I wondered how to include emptiness as a design element.  At last, with no pressing deadlines for a couple of months, I can experiment (as well as devote the necessary time and care to rearing our new little puppy)!  For this piece, I took a design element from a piece constructed last year, and opened it up on the panel:

click on image for larger view

Medusa

The piece is what I refer to as a "topographical piece", which is to say that the design includes hills and valleys rather than a uniformly flat surface.  I wanted it to look as though it is rising out of the panel.  The effect is more obvious from this angle:

click on picture to enlarge

Medusa, detail

I've also decided to leave the piece white, and not to alter its pristine character by applying metal leaf.  

Materials: torn khadi paper strips adhered to khadi sheets, on top of birch panel; gesso.
Dimensions: 36" wide x 36" high x about 4.5" deep.

Katherine Glover in Fiber Art Now Magazine

Please enjoy this article, "Big Paper", appearing in the recent issue of Fiber Art Now Magazine.

The article's first-page piece is my work, Fire in the Lake.

 click on photo to enlarge

Materials
Handmade Indian Khadi paper, colored with fluid acrylic, on birch panel.

Measurements
40" wide x 60" high x 3" deep

The colors, wave patterns and energy flow in “Fire in the Lake” remind me of both leaping flames and the swift water currents.  In nature, the flow of heat in a fire follows the same laws of physics as the flow of water.  This piece attempts to incorporate the energy properties shared by both -- one becomes the other, and they become indistinguishable.